PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh Steelers safety Ryan Clark said he’s “disgusted” with the NFL amid reports that it will now take a closer look at low-knee hits.

If the league's competition committee finds enough evidence this season that hits to the knees are "becoming a problem," it could take action, chief of football operations Ray Anderson told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

According to ESPN.com, the committee could make a recommendation to the owners next March to prohibit direct hits to the knees of defenseless players. The owners would then vote on such a change.

"I'm so disgusted with the NFL right now about those situations but if an offensive player makes enough stink about something they'll change it," said Clark. "If they decide to change this rule they might as well put flags [on players] because then you give a guy like myself, who's 200 pounds, a two-foot area to stop a guy who's 240, 250 running at full speed, and that's going to be kind of hard to do."

Anderson said the league will monitor plays during the season, study the data when the competition committee begins meeting after the season and see whether such hits to the knees are an "aberration or becoming a problem."

It's baseball now. They're teaching the strike zone on a player. Now we have the refs being umps on on where the defender hits and flags are gonna be flying. The beginning of the end of football as we know it...

08-27-2013, 06:47 PM

Captain Lemming

[QUOTE=skyhawk;569583]It's baseball now. They're teaching the strike zone on a player. Now we have the refs being umps on on where the defender hits and flags are gonna be flying. The beginning of the end of football as we know it...[/QUOTE]

Dang you beat me to it. Was gonna say EXACTLY the same thing.

Not if they can used a BAT to take down a player in that small "strike zone" ......maybe Clark will embrace the change. :)

08-27-2013, 07:50 PM

flippy

Can't hit the head. Can't hit the knee. Can't horsecollar. Can't hit to hard. And offensive players can still chop block. What's a defender to do?

There are a lot of players this offseason that I've heard say they'd rather get a concussion than a hit to the knee. Bring back the helmet to helmet hits.

08-28-2013, 07:16 AM

Discipline of Steel

Lawyers and money have ruined the game. Too many rules for an instinctual game. Havent seen a study yet that validates the new rules as effective in reducing injuries and concussions. I wish a former player was commissioner instead of a lawyer. Fans pack the stadiums for the same reasons Romans packed the Coliseum, to become exited by brutal sport. One more thing, former players suing the league for not taking care of them are in the right, but all the others jumping on the bandwagon just because they got injured are losers.

08-28-2013, 10:00 AM

papillon

It's time for another players strike and until they restore the game to it's beauty and violence they shouldn't come back. Or, it's a good time for some billionaires to start a league and pilfer the players that want to play football rather than two handed touch.

Pappy

08-28-2013, 10:30 AM

Oviedo

[QUOTE=papillon;569622]It's time for another players strike and until they restore the game to it's beauty and violence they shouldn't come back. Or, it's a good time for some billionaires to start a league and pilfer the players that want to play football rather than two handed touch.

Pappy[/QUOTE]

Its the players complaining about getting hurt and then suing the NFL when they blow all their money. The players are the root cause of the problem.

Can't hit high. Can't hit low. Steelers safety Ryan Clark is starting to wonder where defensive players can hit as the NFL weighs even more measures to protect players.

Ray Anderson, the NFL's operations chief, told the Associated Press that the league's competition committee would explore taking action if it finds that hits to the knees are becoming a problem.

Clark's reaction?

“I'm disgusted,” he said.

Currently, only hits to the head and neck of defenseless players are prohibited. But direct hits to the knees, such as ones that injured Dolphins tight end Dustin Keller and Vikings defensive tackle Kevin Williams during the preseason, drew rebukes from some players.

Falcons tight end Tony Gonzalez was especially outspoken about what he called the “ridiculous” hit by Texans rookie D.J. Swearinger on Keller, who is out for the season with several torn ligaments.

“You can't protect everything. You want to protect the head, you've done that. Now you have to let us play,” Clark said. “Now if it's guys being hit low, that's just a part of it.”

Clark predicted there would be an increase in low hits as soon as the NFL began its campaign against concussion-inducing head shots. He was fined $40,000 two years ago for a helmet-to-helmet hit on Ravens tight end Ed Dickson, a week after he was fined $15,000 penalty for an out-of-bounds hit on Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski.

“If you start penalizing guys or fining guys a lot for hits up top, guys go to the other extreme,” Clark said. “Guys know there is no way possible I'm going to get fined if I go low. And I said it, it's going to be one or other. Guys are maybe going to hit up high and maybe risk a concussion or hurting a shoulder. And if you get hit low, the season is going to be over (with a knee injury).”

“If they decide to change rule, they might as well put flags (on players) and start playing flag football,” Clark said. “Because then you give a guy like myself, who's 200 pounds, a two-foot area to stop a guy who's 240 pounds, 250 running at full speed and that's going to be kind of hard to do.”

If the legislation continues, Clark said, pretty soon football won't be football.

“If every time someone gets hurt we decide we're going to take that play out of football, it's going to be a different game,” Clark said. “They'll need to change the name of it and change the name of the league.”